1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communications. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and system for automatically pushing wireless messages and other information to personal computing and communication devices such as personal digital assistants.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The market for wireless communication services has grown dramatically in the past few years and is expected to grow at an even faster rate in the future. Many experts predict that wireless communication services will soon surpass traditional xe2x80x9cwiredxe2x80x9d methods of communication. Wireless communication services are no longer limited to voice traffic, but instead now include voice and data traffic so that all types of messages and information can be wirelessly transmitted to and from mobile devices.
Unfortunately, current wireless communication services, as well as conventional wired communication services such as e-mail, voice mail, telephone services, etc., require users to connect to a provider by dialing-in and/or accessing a network before information can be retrieved. This is a problem because users often cannot regularly check for new messages and information and therefore often retrieve time-sensitive information too late.
The above-described problem has been partially remedied by wireless communication services that automatically xe2x80x9cpushxe2x80x9d information to users rather than requiring the users to xe2x80x9cpullxe2x80x9d the information from a provider. However, such push communication services still require the users to be connected to a service provider to be able to use and act upon the information. Once the users go off-network or off-line, the information cannot be used and/or acted upon. Moreover, existing push types of communication services can only push short messages and are therefore not robust enough for many business applications that require more extensive messages and data to be pushed to users.
The present invention solves the above-described problems and provides a distinct advance in the art of communication methods. More particularly, the present invention provides a method and system for pushing information to personal computing and communication devices operated by users in such a way that the users can use and/or act upon the information even when the users are off-network or off-line. The present invention also provides a method and system for automatically xe2x80x9cprovisioningxe2x80x9d personal computing and communication devices so that the devices may be used to act upon the information that is pushed to the devices.
One preferred embodiment of the present invention is implemented with a computer network that is coupled with at least one wireless communication service provider. The computer network is operated by an administrator or provider that offers push message and information delivery services in accordance with the present invention. Senders of messages and other information may access the computer network and provide information destined for a recipient. The computer network then conditions the information and stores the information in a queue until a computing and communication device operated by the recipient is in communication with a corresponding wireless communication service provider. The computer network then automatically pushes the information to the device once it is in communication with the service provider and automatically loads the information into appropriate databases and/or programs in the device. The device thus receives necessary information without requiring the recipient to request the information or to enter or load the information into the appropriate program or database residing on the device.
The computer network may also provision devices by automatically loading and assembling software applications in the devices wirelessly without input or configuration from users of the device. For example, in one embodiment of the invention, the computer network may push information to a device operated by a recipient as described above. The device may then determine that it does not have the necessary applications and/or software versions to process the information and thus automatically transmits a wireless message back to the computer network with an indication of what applications and/or software versions need to be sent to the device. The computer network then automatically pushes any additional necessary software to the device. This allows all information and necessary programs to be seamlessly pushed to a device without requiring the user of the device to determine which programs are necessary to run the information, request the information, or to load the information and programs into the device.
These and other important aspects of the present invention are described more fully in the detailed description below.